Am.  Jour.^pharm.j        Advantage  of  Preliminary  Examination.  71 
demanded  alike  by  the  welfare  of  the  body  and  a  conscientious  regard 
for  the  interests  of  pharmacy. 
Let  me  ask  you  whether  you  think  it  an  overdrawn  statement,  that 
scores  of  young  men  who  having  attempted  pharmacy  as  a  pursuit, 
without  fitness,  suddenly  confronted  with  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
arduous  task  before  them,  diverted  from  any  inclination  to  the  pursuit 
of  study  by  the  exactions  of  business,  placed  at  many,  and  serious  dis- 
advantages— without  qualified  instructors — promised  a  knowledge  of 
the  business,  but  never  permitted  to  use  the  means  of  attaining  it, 
should  eagerly  grasp  at  any  other  prospect  than  the  tedium  of  shop 
study,  should  present  themselves  here  under  a  pardonable  delusion 
that  this  College  can  assume  the  entire  charge  and  responsibility  for 
their  complete  and  perfect  education,  and  ultimately  go  forth  under 
the  still  worse  self-delusion  that  they  have  obtained  it  ?^ 
William  Procter,  a  man  eminent  and  honored  throughout  the  world 
wherever  pharmacy  is  known,  whose  memory  is  revered  here  with 
profound  respect,  whose  mind  was  instinctive  with  the  best  interest  of 
pharmacy,  writes  eiitorially  in  the  Journal  as  follows,  April,  1871  : 
No  amount  of  tuition  by  lectures  will  be  equivalent  to  that  which  the 
earnest  student  receives  in  the  dispensing  shop  under  the  personal  in- 
struction of  a  well  qualified  pharmaceutist  who  takes  an  interest  in  his 
pupil ; "  again  on  the  same  subject,  in  1871,  he  says,  ^'  It  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  a  large  proportion  of  students  of  pharmacy  can  get  the 
tuition  they  need  in  college  schools,  and  it  is  time  that  some  eiforts 
should  be  directed  by  disinterested  (disinterested  so  far  as  any  connec- 
tion with  the  College  was  concerned,  we  presume)  members  of  our 
profession  towards  encouraging  this  home  effort  among  the  present 
generation  of  apprentices  and  assistants;^'  and  again  in  1869,  ^' An 
apothecary  without  shop  experience  is  like  a  medical  graduate  without 
hospital  or  other  practice.    They  are  both  of  doubtful  reliability." 
Let  us  go  back  to  the  earlier  history  of  this  College,  and  dividing 
its  term  of  existence  into  periods,  note  some  significant  facts.  The 
College  was  incorporated  in  1821 — five  years  elapsed  before  any 
graduate  went  forth — taking  the  period  from  1826  to  1869,  inclusive — 
forty-three  years — we  find  by  the  record  that  this  College  graduated 
701  young  men,  or  an  average  of  16  J  per  year — now  observe — that  in 
iThe  College  still  adheres  to  its  By-law  as  rigorously  as  it  ever  did,  viz.,  that  the  can- 
didate for  the  diploma  shall  "  have  served  an  apprenticeship  of  at  least  four  years  with 
a  person  or  persons  engaged  in  and  qualified  to  conduct  the  drug  business." — Editor 
Am.  Jour.  Phak. 
